Had I not already watched much of season 1 of HBO's Alan Ball-produced series True Blood, which is based upon this book, I might have enjoyed this even more. Charlaine Harris is a saucy funny writer, and writes with economy and wit. I got about 2/3 through the book before I started getting perilously close to spoiling the remainder of the TV version's first season, then couldn't help myself and charged ahead anyway. I must say I find a few of the choices the TV producers made to be an improvement upon the novel: Sookie's brother, for example, has far more color on the show than in the book, as does her grandmother, the cook at Merlotte's, and one major TV character doesn't even exist in the book. I found the book's final chapters to be somewhat more sloppily thrown together than the first half of the book That said, this was a fun fast read and I'm sure I will devour the rest in the series in short order. (Do check out the TV show though...it's wonderful).